Salted Mexican Chocolate Ganache Tarts

At my local CrossFit gym I pulled my bar off the rack preparing for my next rep sequence of jerks until I hear Chris; one of the trainers, call my name from the distance. Thinking it was urgent I re-racked the bar and turned around and he immediately says “have you ever tried dark chocolate with sea salt?”. The cool thing is that he is totally into the healthy eating and Paleo scene but I was slightly stunned by the question because I’m all about chocolate with crunchy sea salt on top, but he didn’t know that so I’ll let him off this time.

Once I got home my mind was clouded by incessant thoughts of salted chocolate. There is nothing quite as enjoyable as that perfect salty sweet contrast that meets the tongue along with a nice crunch that comes with salt studded chocolate. I don’t know how anyone came up with it but it was obviously a genius move. Either that or they were walking with an open salt shaker in one hand and a square of dark chocolate in the other as our solar system’s planets aligned perfectly causing them to trip and spill the salt over their chocolate. Cosmic magic resulting in culinary magic.

With the many nuances that chocolatiers like to add to their chocolates like herbs, spices, chiles, fruit, and of course salt; I felt that there was a necessary nuance that could fit well in addition to being salted. My cousin Jenny introduced me to Mexican Hot chocoalte a few years ago which is essentially just a hot chocolate but with chilies and cinnamon added to it. The chilies give it a slight peppery taste along with just a slight bit of heat which combines wonderfully with the fragrant cinnamon.

With those two additions in mind I felt the best way to do this combination justice was to make it into a thick ganache. It’s quite hard to go wrong with a ganache. Even the name sounds amazing, it just seems to roll off the tongue in such a sophisticated manner. Sometimes I like to just say it in super slow motion just because I can’t help it. Whether you choose to play with the word ganache or just make it is up to you, by personal preference I do both.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease 4 - 4 inch tart pans with unmelted coconut oil. In a medium sized bowl combine almond flour, coconut flour, salt, and stir to combine. In a small bowl shisk together egg, honey, and melted coconut oil then pour wet into dry ingredients and stir until thorougly incorporated and there are no clumps remaining.

Divide and press the dough amongst the tart shells and bake them for 10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Pull out of the oven and allow to cool slightly.

Make the Ganache:

While wearing gloves snip the stem off the guajillo chile and shake out most of the seeds. Chop the chocolate finely and place into a medium sized bowl along with the coconut oil.

In a small sauce pot heat coconut milk until hot and steaming then add guajjilo chile, cinnamon sticks, cinnamon, and if using, cayenne pepper. Turn off the heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes then with kitchen shears snip the cinnamon sticks and guajjilo chile into pieces, stir, and reheat until hot again then turn off the heat, cover, and let steep for 20 more minutes.

Remove the lid and reheat the coconut milk mixture once more until hot and steaming then pour the hot coconut milk through a mesh strainer over the chocolate while pressing the cinnamon and chili against the strainer. Let the hot coconut milk and chocolate sit for 1 minute then gently whisk until completely smooth.

Pour chocolate ganache into cooled tart shells, shape with a spatula, sprinkle with sea salt and place in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to harden. If you are not serving them the same day then salt them when serving otherwise the salt will dissolve into the ganache over time.

Notes

These have a very mild bit of heat from the cayenne but feel free to reduce the amount to your liking.

I’m just as surprised that a post beginning with pictures of Salted Mexican Chocolate Ganache Tarts then begins the text as, “At my local CrossFit gym I…” Very unexpected twist you did there. Your’e good at telling the story and also this looks amazing.

This is a ganache not a shell. If you skip liquid it will be even harder. To be honest I’m not sure if it’s adaptable as a pudding or not. Ganache is kind of lick a soft chocolate, it’s really delicious you should try it as it’s listed if you have never had ganache before.

Ganache is pretty thick. If you add a bit more liquid, and whip it as it cools, it will take on a more fluffy texture. If you really wanted to make it like a mousse, I’d whip some coconut cream and fold it into the ganache once it’s cooled.

Thanks for reminding me about that. It can definitely be done in a regular sized one but I’m not sure how large it can go. It should fit an 8 inch tart pan for sure and possibly a 12 inch. The only thing is that you might have to bake the tart shell a bit longer, just bake it for 10 minutes and then check on it at 1 minute intervals until its lightly golden brown around the edges and continue the recipe as explained. If you try it let me know how it goes and what what the size of your tart pan is and I’ll update the recipe with that info.

So…I went ahead and did this with an 11″ tart pan. The crust recipe made plenty, but I’d likely double the filling recipe next time. The recipe as written only made about a 1/4 thick layer of filling within the crust. Still delicious, and so rich that that was plenty, but I’d rather have thicker tart and serve thinner slices.

They are mildly spicy but if you want you can reduce or completely omit the cayenne pepper to reduce or eliminate that factor if you’re worried. It’s nice with a little bit of spicy in my opinion though but if you’re very sensitive to it then just do a tiny sprinkle of cayenne or none.

I actually made these to be gluten/grain free on purpose so I have no idea what the substitution would be for a tart crust. Supposedly you can convert equal parts almond flour with equal parts regular flour so you could try and it could very well work but I’m not certain.

Well you could definitely use a different kind of chili but you will likely have to adjust the amount you use because you don’t want it to be too spicy. Just a touch of heat. So I would say look for a semi-sweet, mildish chili, that is relatable to the one I used in this recipe.

As soon as I saw this circulating through Tumblr, I just had to click on it since the photographs looked amazing! Thank you for the recipe!

I am, however, curious about this Mexican Hot Chocolate with chile. I grew up with this drink when traveling to Mexico with my family when I was young, but never once encountered a variation of the drink with chile in any of the states that I visited – at least to my knowledge. I just want to know where you had it because it sounds kind of delicious.

you had me at “mexican chocolate ganache” … sooo glad I came across your post via Pinterest. We *try* to be grain-free as possible, and I am so subscribing, bookmarking, Pinterest and Facebook following you!

I have never made a glf pastry shell. Does it behave differently to a normal pastry? Does it need to be chilled before baking to prevent it shrinking? Do I need to use beans to blind bake it, or to prick the pastry like with a normal pastry? Does it need to be sealed to prevent the filling from seeping through it? I’m intrigued!

[…] Palette-Lately I’ve noticed a trend of salted chocolate and salted caramel. Anyone else noticed or seemed to drawn to that combination as much as me? As if either weren’t good enough, let’s add sea salt to the mix….sounds like a good idea to me. I love anything miniature in the baking world too so when I spotted these they immediately went on the list of desserts to attempt to make! Maybe if it ends up raining most of the weekend, I’ll resort to eating my feelings in the kitchen and diving into these salted Mexican chocolate ganache tarts! […]

[…] Mexican Chocolate Ganache Tarts (Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Paleo) from Slim Palate “I was introduced to Mexican hot chocolate by my cousin a few years ago during the holidays and fell in love with it. With my incessant thoughts of Mexican hot chocolate cluttering my mind I decided to make an even more rich and alluring twist of it.” […]